Networking technologies such as a wireless local area network (WLAN) and cellular are being used more ubiquitously in various industries, including the automotive, rail, aeronautical and marine industries. The uptake of the use of such technologies will likely increase in coming years.
For vehicles, WLAN applications may be used for a variety of functions. A first use of the technology may be for an infotainment system. In particular, vehicles that become more connected may provide services such as streaming video to rear seat passengers, the ability to connect to social networks or play games online, among other options, while in a vehicle.
A second use for WLAN technology may be for safety applications. In particular, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) provide for technology in which the software and communication systems are designed to enhance road safety and road traffic efficiency by providing communications to or from a vehicle, infrastructure, network and/or pedestrian or portable device.
A further use for WLAN technology in vehicles may be for traffic offloading. Specifically, Wi-Fi offloading is the use of a complementary network technology for delivering data originally targeted for a cellular network.
In a further embodiment, WLAN technology may be used for in-automobile communication for control and operation of the vehicle. Specifically, currently control of the various vehicle components is done through wired technology such as CANbus, Ethernet, among others. However, a possibility exists for vehicle control utilizing wireless technologies.
While the same WLAN radio could be used for all the above operations, this may compromise safety communications and therefore is typically avoided. Thus multiple WLAN radios are generally needed for vehicles, devices or applications having both safety and non-safety functionality, increasing costs for installing such systems.